Avi Arad
| birth_place = Ramat Gan, Mandatory Palestine | death_date = | death_place = | notable_works = Marvel Studios (founder and producer) | occupation = Film producer, businessman | years_active = 1993–present }} Avi Arad ( ; ; April 18, 1948) is an Israeli-American businessman and film producer who became the CEO of the company Toy Biz in the 1990s and soon afterward became the chief creative officer of Marvel Entertainment, a Marvel director and the chairman, CEO and founder of Marvel Studios."Marvel Announces New Independent Producer Deal with Avi Arad" , May 31, 2006 press release, via Ain't It Cool News Since then, Arad has produced a wide array of live-action, animated, and television comic book adaptations including Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the 2019 Academy Award winner for Best Animated Feature. Early life and career Arad was born in 1948 in Ramat Gan, Israel, to a Jewish family. The son of Holocaust survivors from Poland, he grew up reading Superman and Spider-Man comics translated into Hebrew. In 1965, he was conscripted into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). He fought in and was wounded in the 1967 Six-Day War, and spent 15 days recuperating. Arad finished his military service in 1968. In 1970, Arad moved to the United States and enrolled at Hofstra University to study industrial management. He worked as a truck driver and Hebrew teacher to put himself through college, and graduated with a BBA in 1972. Marvel Comics Along with Israeli-American Toy Biz co-owner Isaac Perlmutter, Avi Arad came into conflict with Carl Icahn and Ron Perelman over control of Marvel Comics in the wake of its 1996 bankruptcy. In the end, Arad and Perlmutter came out on top, with Toy Biz taking over Marvel Comics in a complicated deal that included obtaining the rights to Spider-Man and other superheroes that Marvel had sold earlier. He was involved in Marvel's emergence from bankruptcy and the expansion of the company's profile through licensing and movies. Later career On May 31, 2006, Arad resigned his various Marvel positions, including his leadership of Marvel Studios to form his own production company, Arad Productions, a company that primarily produces Marvel-licensed films separate from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. His first non-Marvel film was 2007's Bratz. Future ventures include: manga adaptation Ghost in the Shell; an adaption of Brandon Mull's best-seller teenage fantasy, Fablehaven; an adaption of James Patterson's award-winning teenage novel Maximum Ride; the adaptations of two Sony PlayStation properties, Uncharted and infamous, and an adaptation of Hideo Kojima's video game Metal Gear Solid. On August 25, 2010, it was announced that Arad was given a chair with the American branch of animation studio Production I.G in Los Angeles, California. Producer filmography See also *List of Israeli Americans References External links * * * Category:1948 births Category:Hofstra University alumni Category:Israeli emigrants to the United States Category:Israeli Jews Category:Israeli soldiers Category:Living people Category:Marvel Entertainment people Category:Marvel Studios Category:American film producers Category:Israeli film producers Category:American chief executives Category:Israeli chief executives Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent Category:Israeli people of Polish-Jewish descent Category:Children of Holocaust survivors Category:People from Givatayim Category:Marvel Comics people